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Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline. The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature. Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area. The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint. Having outlined his strategy...

Former Knesset member said Israel should not be state for Jews JERUSALEM – Politicians, Jewish leaders and commentators here have been lashing out at a leftist former Knesset member, international Jewish leader and senior activist of Israel's "peace camp" who called for Israel to cease being a Jewish state. One Knesset member demanded Avraham Burg, who once was considered a potential candidate for prime minister and was a leading member of Israel's leftist Labor party, should lose his plot in a section of Israel's national cemetery reserved for the country's leaders. Burg recently published a book, "Defeating Hitler," in which...

BERLIN - Politicians and Muslim leaders condemned a German judge Thursday for citing the Quran in her rejection of a Muslim woman's request for a quick divorce on grounds she was abused by her husband. Judge Christa Datz-Winter said in a recommendation earlier this year that both partners came from a "Moroccan cultural environment in which it is not uncommon for a man to exert a right of corporal punishment over his wife," according to the court. The woman is a German of Moroccan descent married to a Moroccan citizen. The judge argued that her case was not one of...

Freeze 'condemned Neanderthals' Small pockets of Neanderthals clung on in the south (Image: Gibraltar Museum) A sharp freeze could have dealt the killer blow that finished off our evolutionary cousins the Neanderthals, according to a new study. The ancient humans are thought to have died out in most parts of Europe by about 35,000 years ago. And now new data from their last known refuge in southern Iberia indicates the final population was probably beaten by a cold spell some 24,000 years ago. The research is reported by experts from the Gibraltar Museum and Spain. They say a climate downturn...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 5, 2006 – The commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76 here condemned today a terrorist attack on a children's school in Laghman province. Eight people set fire to Katal School in Mehtar Lam on May 2, destroying the principal's office and a storage room filled with supplies, notebooks and Korans. "This is another example of the Taliban's vision for the future of Afghan children," said Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, CJTF 76 commander. "Extremists want to deny children and education in the name of religion, and they demonstrate their point by desecrating their most sacred...

These Courses Are Condemned "Christian Morality in American Literature" is biased. "Feminine Perspectives in Literature" is not. Jordan Trivison holds forth in Shannon Jonker's English class, recapping several chapters of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." Then he and his fellow seniors at Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murietta, Calif., start discussing it. They take up the question of whether the monster in the novel can be blamed for his behavior, since he was abandoned shortly after his formation and no one taught him right from wrong. They also discuss "whether the monster has a soul." Jordan struggles aloud with this issue, noting...

In Jordan's King Abdullah, Washington saw the kinder, gentler face of the Arab world. Arriving last month to accept an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University, the 43-year-old monarch told American reporters he supports democracy movements spreading from Iraq to Lebanon. His visit to Washington came just as Arab leaders gathered in Algiers without him. The king skipped a regional summit of the Arab League, even though the most talked-about item on the agenda was a Jordanian peace proposal that for the first time dropped Arab demands that Israel cede all lands it acquired in the 1967 war. Rather than tussle...

Normally I add a paragraph of two of explanation of my subject matter for the benefit of any readers that may not be familiar with the subject that I am addressing. In this case, if you have not heard of the Terri Schiavo case, I suggest you quit now and read something else. Maybe no other case in recent history, including the O. J. Simpson and Scott Peterson cases, has generated as much controversy as the Terri Schiavo case. I can’t begin to count how many articles and opinions and I’ve read and heard in the past couple of weeks....

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons are the worst binge drinkers in Europe and women are catching up with men in the heavy drinking stakes, the government said on Friday, urging a "more civilized" late-night culture. A report by Downing Street's strategy unit found that while Britons drink less than most of the continental neighbors, they drink more intensively. "In the UK, binge drinking accounts for 40 percent of all drinking occasions by men and 22 percent by women," the unit said in a report designed to inform government policy on alcohol abuse. That put Britain at the top of the binge...

SYDNEY, Asian religious leaders on Wednesday condemned the appointment by the U.S. Episcopal Church of its first openly gay bishop, warning that regional Anglican bishops might consider cutting ties with their American sister church. In Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who is spiritual leader of the Church of England and of the Anglican Communion, said that the bishop's confirmation would have a "significant impact" on the worldwide Anglican Communion, but he appealed to opponents not to react rashly. The U.S. church reached its historic decision after rejecting accusations of sexual misconduct against the Reverend Gene Robinson. In an...